Wednesday, August 24, 2011

EARTHQUAKES AND HURRICANES! OH MY!

BORING IS NICE. I can enjoy a life without adrenalin pumping moments. I really can. Yesterday was a break from the norm, and not enjoyable. Of course, things could always have been worse. As you probably know, I used to live in the Middle East. I have been in serious heavy duty earthquake country. In the spring of my Senior year in high school for example, we had a major quake over in the eastern part of Turkey. We decided to skip our Prom and have a sock hop instead and donate all that money we would have spent on gowns and flowers, tuxedos and such, renting a ballroom, etc. and just play some music in the gym, and send that money to one of the towns devastated by the quake. A group of us bought food and blankets and water containers, a few tents, tools, rope... I don't remember what all we gathered and bought. My dad had a truck and our next door neighbr had a VW bus. We loaded up and headed out to the east, a small motorized caravan that some of us called our senior class trip! The trip took 2 days to get there since there were no paved roads outside the city. The town we took our stuff to was mostly a pile of rubble. It was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. It was heartbreaking. So our little earthquake (5.9) yesterday was interesting but not really scary. I do not want a repeat anytime soon, but we are almost 200 miles from the epicenter that was about 34 miles NW of Richmond. Sadly, my first thought was that someone had bombed Norfolk. Or that a nuclear power plant in NJ had blown up. What sad times we live in.

But, as I said, yesterday was not boring. When the earthquake rumbled thru, I was taking a break from preparing for a hurricane, putting all the birdfeeders away, bungying the adirondacks together, moving all the small objects that tend to migrate to the carport. Hurricanes scare me. We are only 35 feet above sea level, no mountains to protect us... hurricanes are scary. So today will be spent battening down the hatches, rechecking the hurricane food supply, filling the van with gas and a couple cages, just in case... and longing for that boring "nothing ever happens here" mode to return.

7 comments:

Caddie said...

How admirable you Seniors were. Goes to show, there is much we can learn from the young ones. Earthquake? I didn't feel a thing, unless that was what caused the palsied vertigo spell I had - Haha. Others here felt it. They told me how everything was "just aswangin" down there at the library. Good post, possum. Seeing pictures of thousands sardined on the pavement between two towering buildings sort of verifies my thoughts about the abilities of those folks up there in DC.
Sissy here; just in case Blogger is still acting like a brat

troutbirder said...

Scary. We had an earthquake tremor here in 1803, never a hurricane but the occasional tornado. Maybe "flyover country" in mid continent isn't so bad after all. :)

Loretta said...

So glad to hear your geting ready for the hurricane....just in case!
I am like you, boring is nice! Take care.

Ginnie said...

Hi Jan, I'll keep my fingers crossed that Irene will pass us both by ... but you are so much closer to the coast. I DID feel the earthquake since it made the house rock!

ancient one said...

I'm still holding off on taking everything inside. It seems that it might not be as close to us as first thought. You might be right in line for the full force.

I like boring too!

Yesterday was my first earthquake. At first I thought there was something wrong with me. Then realized the whole house was shaking. I wondered why I didn't hear the explosion that caused everything to shake. Probably along about the fifth thought, Earthquake came into my brain. LOL I will never forget it.

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

August 26. Time to head for the Poconos for a few days. Stay safe.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Possum, as you know we will be riding out the storm here too. We've done all the putting away and battening down stuff too and are now hoping for just a little rain and NO wind. Hopefully, we will all come out OK.